Brighton's New Dress

While searching for Suri Cruise pictures last time I posted anything, I found this cute picture of her in this even cuter dress. I thought, I need to make one for Brighton! I found a long sleeved turtle neck shirt on clearance at Walmart and hacked it up to make it look like this:

Too cute, no?

Tutorial to come soon. Seriously, you can make this in 5 minutes. Ok, maybe 10.

Chores

Brighton has started her very own set of chores. She feeds Sawyer, our dog, and sets the table for dinner. Last night, she actually helped me A LOT with dinner. She stirred the dough for the rolls and put the salad in the bowls after I cut everything up. She even made a salad for herself. And then she set the table. I thought she did such a great job I had to share it with you. (Yes, Brighton put everything on the table that you see, where you see it. She's awesome.)

Brighton's Fashion Corner

I don't think you can start training too early for this: teaching your daughter to walk properly in heels.

Brighton enjoys trying on some ankle boots.

And some heels.

I also let her wear my clip on cameo earrings. She modeled several pictures and said she was a princess. Yes, she is.

She is so funny! She put on her new shoes, my sunglasses, grabbed my purse, and told me she needed to go to her friend's house. See ya!

Creamy Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

We eat pizza at least once a week. It's my easy, go-to meal. I'm good with a plain cheese or pepperoni. Dale likes a good BBQ chicken. But sometimes I need to break out of the box and try something new. If you have other pizza topping suggestions, please tell me what you like! I make this pasta that Dale just LOVES. It's the same sauce I made for this pizza, you just put it on noodles. Everyone loves it, even my little brother who hates everything these days. So enjoy!

Crust:

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

I'm a cheater and use my mixer for making pizza crust. If you don't have one, you should get one, because kneading dough by hand in NO FUN! Combine the water and yeast in your bowl. Add 2 1/2 cups flour (if doing by hand, add a cup at a time, mixing after each addition), salt, and olive oil. Knead until a nice, not too firm, non-sticky dough is formed. I actually like to leave it just a tinge sticky. Let rise double (about an hour on a not too cold day, 30 minutes in the summer).

Now for the Creamy Chicken Bacon Ranch Sauce. Mmmmm.

Ingredients:
3 slices of bacon, cut into strips
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size chunks
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons dry ranch dressing mix
1 1/4 cup milk

1. Cook the bacon until it's nice and crispy.
2. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and leave all that yummy grease in your pan.
3. Add your chicken chunks to the bacon grease.

4. Cook chicken until golden brown.

5. Combine flour and ranch mix together (I've found this works at making the flour not clump together too much).
6. Sprinkle over the chicken and greases.
7. Stir it up so the grease is absorbed and the chicken is nice and breaded.
8. Add the milk to your pan and bring to a boil.
9. Let it simmer for a few minutes until it gets nice and thick.
10. Your dough should be ready by now! Spray your pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal, if it tickles your fancy.

11. Press your dough into a nice circle with raised edges to keep all that sauce in!

12. Pour on the sauce! I added the bacon back in, which is what you'd do if you were making the pasta, but I think it would be better sprinkled on the top of the pizza. Take your pick.

13. Cover with lots of mozzarella cheese, and I added some Parmesan for more yummy flavor. I add Parmesan to everything. We don't like onions in the house, or peppers or any of those fancy, grown-up vegetables. So if you like those, add them to the top! Also, put that crispy bacon on top for added color. I sprinkled some basil on top. I also hide spinach on the pizza sometimes to get B and Dale to eat veggies.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and enjoy!

Deja Vu

This past weekend Mason found the door stop. I totally had that feeling, I'd seen this all before.

He actually found the door stop a whole two months earlier than Brighton did. Way to show her up Mason!

Trying to Get Brighton to Pose with Mason

So after I finished Brighton's little shirt, I put it on her and she wanted me to take some pictures of her.

Here's the first picture. Then I asked her to go sit by Mason so they could get a picture together.

So she sits right in front of him.

He starts grabbing her shirt and she says, "No, Mason! It's my dress! Don't touch my dress"

And then she proceeds to pull her dress away and get away from him. I feel like it's already starting: "Stop touching me!" "Stop breathing my air!"

A Nursery Rhyme For Mason

Mason has this crazy ability! He can get his sock and shoe off of his left foot, and only his left foot. It's always shoeless, and then sockless. It made me think of a nursery rhyme, and I changed it a little bit to make it Mason's very own!

Diddle, diddle dumpling my son Mason John
Went to bed with his blue jeans on.
One sock on and one sock off.
Diddle, diddle dumpling my son Mason John.

Mason

I got carried away a little this past week with taking some pictures of Mason (finally, poor neglected baby!). I couldn't decide which ones were my favorites so I'm just going to give you a good sampling!

Brighton's Fashion Corner

Because we're potty training, Brighton is getting a bit more use of her skirts and dresses. And she's loving picking out which one she's going to wear each day, along with some fun accessories.

No dress is complete without some puffy pink snow boots. Or a bright orange pumpkin beanie. With just a simple change of the dress each day, this has been her outfit for the last week.

I feel like my daughter is channeling Suri Cruise. If only Brighton's wardrobe was worth $3 million- oh the outfits she could have then!

Making Brownies With Brighton

As it turns out, when you're potty training, there really isn't anything you won't do to entice your little one to pop a squat. The bribe this time: we'll make brownies and you can lick the spoon.

Brighton says, literally: "mmmmm"

"yummy"

"it's great!"

"it's SO good"

"I love chocolate." Uh-oh.